Best adapted screenplay

Will win/should win: Aaron Sorkin, "The Social Network" The "West Wing" creator packed 163 pages worth of words into a two-hour movie. Not a single syllable is wasted. The instant-classic opening scene establishes the movie's verbal style -- a boobytrapped kind of banter -- as Harvard whiz Zuckerberg repels a fresh-faced BU girl named Erica (Rooney Mara) with a toxic mixture of hubris and insecurity. And Sorkin sustains and deepens that style right up to the final shots of Zuckerberg staring enigmatically at Erica's Facebook page.--Michael Sragow

Will win/should win: Aaron Sorkin, "The Social Network" The "West Wing" creator packed 163 pages worth of words into a two-hour movie. Not a single syllable is wasted. The instant-classic opening scene establishes the movie's verbal style -- a boobytrapped kind of banter -- as Harvard whiz Zuckerberg repels a fresh-faced BU girl named Erica (Rooney Mara) with a toxic mixture of hubris and insecurity. And Sorkin sustains and deepens that style right up to the final shots of Zuckerberg staring enigmatically at Erica's Facebook page.--Michael Sragow (AFP/Getty Images)

Will win/should win: Aaron Sorkin, "The Social Network" The "West Wing" creator packed 163 pages worth of words into a two-hour movie. Not a single syllable is wasted. The instant-classic opening scene establishes the movie's verbal style -- a boobytrapped kind of banter -- as Harvard whiz Zuckerberg repels a fresh-faced BU girl named Erica (Rooney Mara) with a toxic mixture of hubris and insecurity. And Sorkin sustains and deepens that style right up to the final shots of Zuckerberg staring enigmatically at Erica's Facebook page.--Michael SragowAFP/Getty Images